wigan – Modern Mooch

Wigan Walk – 2026

Posted on June 2, 2026June 2, 2026 by modernmoocher

It’s been four years since our 2022 Wigan Walk – so time to see if there has been a refreshing change.

Beginning with a trip to the former flicks, the Princes Cinema now trading as Pure nightclub, sometimes home to Singo Bingo.

Originally the site of New Princes Theatre, opened on the 1st May 1911, the cinema was demolished and replaced, on an adjacent plot, by Princes Cinema in 1933.

Onward now to see the three Telephone Exchanges.

Interwar

Sixties

Ofd special note the adjacent Electrical Substation of the day.

Plus extra added military history.

Seventies

Tucked in behind the Telephone Exchange are several streets of Edwardian social housing – the Spring Gardens Scheme of 1905.

The property is practically paying its way, and all the present generation has to find is a small sum of ninety odd pounds for sinking funds. For this we get fifty-nine families decently housed, the rateable value of the town increased, a slum abolished, an eyesore removed, the health of the inhabitants remarkably improved, their environment made clean, refined, and elevating, whilst our successors in 1959 will inherit an unencumbered estate.

Municipal Dreams

Next to the Wigan Post Office Sorting Office 1959.

Next we take a look at the Bus Station.

Wigan’s original bus station was on Market Square.

Image Wigan World

It was demolished in 1985 as part of a wider redevelopment of the town centre to make way for the Galleries Shopping Centre. A new bus station, built at a cost of £2.3 million, began construction in April 1986, and opened in November 1987.

Wikipedia

Transport for Greater Manchester commissioned Austin-Smith:Lord to design a replacement nineteen stand £15.7m bus station in Wigan Town Centre, the project was completed in October 2018.

Construction images – Bee Network.

Around the corner to the Wigan & Leigh College.

The original building of 1954 by Howard V Lobb G Grenfell Bains & Hargreaves, with later extension.

There have been several phases of redevelopment and new build in recent years.

This block of the Technical School has been demolished since my last visit.

Thomas Linacre Technical School for Boys mural 1954.

Image – RIBA pix

Across the road the former Grammar School.

Wigan Grammar School was founded in 1597 and closed in 1972, as part of the comprehensive education movement.

It then became Mesnes High School, and subsequently Wigan College’s Mesnes Building in 1989.

Since 2003, it has been known as the Thomas Linacre Centre and is an out-patient department for the Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.

It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1997.

Architect: A E Munby

DJ Russ Winstanley was a former pupil, here he is in 1975 at the Wigan Casino holding up a copy of Footsee by Wigan’s Chosen Few b/w Seven Days Too Long by Chuck Wood.

On Millgate we find the former Wigan Civic Centre.

Once it was all boarded up with nowhere to go.

Subsequently resuscitated by Capital&Centric.

Across the way the new Library and Life Centre by Astudio and LCE Architects.

Down the road is the recently refurbished Leisure Centre.

Built on the site of the International Swimming Pool – opened 1968 demolished 2010.

Across the way to Scholes Comprehensive Development 1964

Five thirteen-storey tower blocks adjacent to Douglas House in Scholes were approved in 1964. Lower-rise housing and flats spread to the east. In 1968, a further 13-storey block, Boyswell House, was built at this eastern end of the Scholes Comprehensive Development Area. Almost 500 slum houses, housing 566 families, were demolished that same year and 581 new council homes completed.

Municipal Dreams

Image – Tower Block 1987

Next to the Roger Booth cop shop that became a Premier Inn.

A super-comfy bed, blackout curtains, a powerful shower and free Wi-Fi – our double rooms have everything you’ll need for a great night’s sleep.

Next door the Wigan & Leigh Courthouse 1992 Wigan MBC Architect.

Relief figure of justice by Christine Ward.

Onward to Brocol House – currently home to the Job Centre

Image – Wigan Peers

Originally built for the Inland Revenue one the site of the Brewers Arms – has the welcoming charm shared by the majority of Ministry of Works buildings of the period.

Nearly done – up the road to the County Playhouse.

Which masquerades as Ibiza.

The club’s atmosphere is defined by thumping music and a vibrant crowd eager to dance and celebrate. Its modern interior design complements the lively ambience, creating an inviting space for locals and visitors alike.

Construction began on the County Playhouse in 1916. However, due to a shortage of materials and labour during World War I, it was not completed until 1919.

Finally opened on 22nd December 1919 with The Hun Within – starring Dorothy Gish.

The County Playhouse closed on Sunday 13th November 1966 with Disney’s “The Sword and the Stone”. It was taken over by the Leeds Based Star Cinemas chain and they converted it into Star Bingo and Social Club opened on 24th November 1966.

MAS sales store 1982 – Frank Orrell Photography

The building has since been used as a discount store and Playhouse Club Café. It then became home to the 1,200 capacity Pure Nightclub. In the early-2000’s it became the Ibiza nightclub. The Pure nightclub move into the former Princes Cinema

Cinema Treasures

Time for a swift half in The George to end your tour?

Great for a local pint one of the cheapest in Wigan I believe, slightly rough at times but no fights just real local people who are generally friendly. Proper drinking gaff, and karaoke on certain nights.

Use Your Local

Wigan Civic Centre 2026

Posted on June 1, 2026June 2, 2026 by modernmoocher

Over ten years ago I visited Wigan Civic Centre.

It looked a lot like this:

The current Pevsner Guide remarks:

1971 built of a pre-cast concrete panel system, dour, on an awkwardly sloping site.

I beg to differ – what’s the opposite of dour?

So says the online Thesaurus – and I heartily concur, for the whole building has had a makeover and a half.

Civic is a super energy-efficient workspace in the centre of Wigan town centre. The BREEAM Excellent building has space for business of all sizes, from desks for solo start-ups, all the way to big open plan offices with their own front door.

The brutalist beast has been lovingly restored by Capital&Centric to celebrate its architecture, with original waffle ceilings, corduroy concrete and stunning feature windows that flood the space with light.

Capital&Centric

The redevelopment was supported by cash from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund – UKSPF.

Dave Molyneux, the leader of Wigan Council, said:

I had an office in here for quite a while and it had that 1970s retro, concrete building style but this is something special.

For businesses, we’re probably the best located local authority in Greater Manchester because of the West Coast Main Line and the M6 motorway.

BBC

It was great to visit and tour Wigan Civic Centre on Millgate, to see the inspiring work being done to create sustainable workspaces and amenities in the centre of our town. This development, alongside others taking place and planned across the North West, will help to revitalise our public spaces

Lisa Nandy MP

The refit was handled by shedkm.

With students, start-ups and professionals situating themselves elsewhere in Greater Manchester, Wigan town had been missing out on the economic and cultural vitality that high quality workspace brings. Civic’s transformation represents not just the overhaul of a tired concrete building, but a wider renewal of place and opportunity for Wigan.

Main interior contractors were Workspace Design & Build.

Working with Wigan Council and Capital & Centric, we completed the refurbishment of the 50,000 sq ft building that is Wigan Civic Centre. Delivering aspirational office accommodation to stimulate economic growth with the goal to create a lasting social impact in Wigan. In addition to exemplar market-leading workspace, amenities include a rooftop terrace, mini cinema, gym studio and co-working/coffee shop space.

Here’s the exterior.

Many thanks to the Cotton Café Bar for kindly allowing us in after hours.

Diners image Canning O’Neill – spaces to let.

Ultimately, civic stands as a symbol of optimism for Wigan, proving that intelligent commercial design can catalyse economic renewal, secure a sustainable future, and truly lift a town’s spirits, without erasing its history. It is a gold standard for the adaptive reuse of 20th-century landmarks.

Judge, BCO Awards 2026

Open for business bob along pronto.

St Jude’s RC – Wigan

Posted on February 27, 2022September 9, 2023 by modernmoocher

St. Jude’s Church Poolstock Lane/St Paul’s Avenue Wigan WN3 5JE

Following the demolition of many working class homes in central Wigan in the early-to-mid 20th century there was a migration to new council estates on the outskirts of the town including new developments in the Poolstock and Worsley Mesnes localities. In order to cater to the Catholic inhabitants of the new estates Father Richard Tobin of St Joseph’s parish in Wigan, established a chapel of ease – described as a wooden hut, on St Paul’s Avenue in 1959.

In 1962 Tobin wrote to the Archbishop of Liverpool George Andrew Beck with his proposals for a new, permanent church, suggesting that the church should be dedicated either to St Jude or Our Lady of the Assumption.

Beck replied on 15 March:

My dear Father Tobin, Many thanks for your letter. I like your suggestion of St. Jude as a patron of the new church. We already have a parish in honour of The Assumption but none, so far as I know, to St. Jude. I assume that you do not intend to suggest by this title that Wigan is a hopeless case!

The Liverpool architects L A G Prichard & Sons were engaged and work began in the summer of 1963. Subsidence caused by coal mining in the area necessitated reinforced foundations and the final cost was over £100,000. The foundation stone was laid by Archbishop Beck in December 1964 and the church was opened for worship in July 1965.

Wikipedia

The church was Grade II listed on 26th April 2013

The most remarkable feature of the church is the dalle de verre stained glass on the walls of the nave, designed by Robin Riley, made by Verriers de St Jobain in France and fitted by glaziers J O’Neill and Sons.

Sadly Robin Riley died this year, aged 90, my thanks to his former student Keith Hamlett for the information.

Wigan Walk

Posted on February 25, 2022June 2, 2026 by modernmoocher

Arriving at Wigan Wallgate turn left and left and right.

Tucked away along Clarence Yard is the former Princes Cinema.

Photo: Ian Grundy

Where once upon a time the flat capped and hatted audience queued at length, for a glimpse of Dracula and Frankenstein.

Opened in 1934 and closed on 10th January 1970 with a screening of The Mad Room.

Cinema Treasures

It has subsequently been in use as a nightclub.

Back out onto Dorning Street in search of telephone exchanges, three telephone exchanges.

Inter-war

Sixties.

Seventies.

Just around the corner is an expansive GPO Sorting Office of 1959.

Across the way is the Technical College.

The foundations of Wigan & Leigh College date back to 1857, and the current institution was formed in April 1992 through the merger of Wigan College of Technology and Leigh College.

Partly formed from the Thomas Linacre Technical School.

Architects: Howard V Lobb G Grenfell Bains & Hargreaves 1954

School Hall – RIBA Pix

Curious decorative brick motif – a floor plan of the building.

My thanks to Mark Watson for his erudition and insight.

Across the road the former Grammar School now an NHS Centre.

Wigan Grammar School was founded in 1597 and closed in 1972 as part of the comprehensive education movement. it became Mesnes High School until 1989, and then the Mesnes Building of Wigan College.

It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1997.

Architect: A E Munby

Since 2003, it has been known as the Thomas Linacre Centre and is an out-patient department for the Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust.

Let’s head back into town and along Standishgate.

Former Burton Tailors – possibly.

Turn left into Millgate to see the boarded up Civic Centre.

Formerly not boarded up Civic Centre.

Across the way the new Library and Life Centre by Astudio and LCE Architects

Down the road to where the International Swimming Pool was – opened 1968.

Demolished 2010

Scholes Comprehensive Development 1964 – five thirteen storey blocks.

Moving down the street to the former Police Station now Premier Inn on Harrogate Street.

Lancashire County Architect: Roger Booth

Next door the Post Modern brick monolith of the Wigan and Leigh Courthouse 1990.

Then back up along King Street to visit the Job Centre.

Take a look up at the Royal Court Theatre – 1886 Richard T Johnson

Then back up toward the centre to the County Playhouse.

Construction began on the County Playhouse in 1916. However, due to a shortage of materials and labour during World War I, it was not completed until 1919.

Finally opened on 22nd December 1919 with The Peril Within – starring Dorothy Gish.

Onwards to the Wallgate News.

Finally to The George public house.

All ages, all different, all characters all like a bevvy.

The George is all you need.

Telephone Exchanges – Wigan

Posted on February 7, 2022February 7, 2022 by modernmoocher

Wandering around Wigan left and then left out of Wigan Wallgate ending up on the corner of Dorning Street, there’s a big red brick building.

1882

Where all this went on in 1946.

BT Archives

And all this went on too!

I only worked there very briefly in 1965, to do my Test Desk Training. It was a pleasant, if too hot, place to work: I remember being taken out for lunch at the Grand on my first day – very nice!

One peculiarity, which always stuck in my mind, was the canteen, upstairs, where the men all clung to one side, and the women to the other, never saw that anywhere else.

I was a telephonist 1961 -1968, I married a telephone engineer, you are right about the canteen or kitchen upstairs. When I first started after I’d finished my training I was sent down to the test desk for a long stand. Being a naive little thing I did as I was told, then sent out for some sky hooks and hen party hens, the girls I worked with were a great bunch we had ball best working years of my life, still friends with some of the telephonists I worked with – happy days.

Walking down Dorning Street one day going back to work and on the pavement outside the Grand there was a half crown. Tried to pick it up to howls of laughter. The lads in the telephone exchange opposite had welded a nail to it and pushed it in the ground between the paving flags. Very funny, and no I didn’t get it out.

Wigan World

hen you notice that there’s a Sixties’ neighbour.

With narrow windows and inset light and dark tan tiles.

Prior to the exchange of telecommunications’ messages, the site was preoccupied by the exchange of partisan residents with a predilection for particular political persuasions.

Let’s back track along Dorning Street and follow the aroma of Uncle Joe’s Mint Balls – to the Santus Works and beyond.

There stands a concrete behemoth.

Which has of late been beset with particular problems of its own.

Minefield of lager cans near Wigan school sparks worry Wigan councillors.

They are on a mission to stop the grounds of a derelict building, which lies just yards away from a school, being used as a drinking den.

Wigan Today

Though in fairness I was witness to neither a minefield or drinking den – just a telephone exchange.

Civic Centre – Wigan Again

Posted on September 8, 2019 by modernmoocher

I’ve been here before, no not in some strange déjà vu sense.

I’ve been here before – look!

Three years on, now in the shadow of the newly built Life Centre, you stand alone unloved – empty.

But the future of the Modernist landmark, which was first put in service by the borough in the early 70s, remains unclear. There is speculation that the Millgate building, first unveiled by Wigan Mayor John Farrimond, could become a hotel.

Last October the Wigan Observer revealed how the council had enjoyed mixed fortunes when it came to marketing elements of its existing property portfolio.

But the council has been successful in offloading some venues, with Ince Town Hall now home to Little Giggles nursery.

So who knows what fate awaits you – the town I am told is on the up.

Let’s hope that the Civic Centre is not coming down

Sam’s Bar – Wigan

Posted on January 15, 2018January 15, 2018 by modernmoocher

Sam’s Bar – Orchard St, Wigan WN1 3SW.

Once there was The Ball and Boot – oval or round, no dubbin required.

A Tetley Walker pub on the edge of the then new Scholes Estate – seen here in 1987.

Photograph Tower Block

This is the one and only photograph of its former black and white self.

Though an internet search revealed a rich heritage of pool, football, fancy dress and trips to Lloret De Mar, for the lads and lasses of Lower Scholes.

The pub now named Sam’s Bar, has retained its jolly jumble of modernist volumes and angles – though having lost the harlequin panels and off licence. Mid-morning the lights were on and the pub was surrounded by cars taking advantage of the £1.90 a day parking.

The online reviews seem to divide opinion as to the quality of the current provision.

This pub is not a nice place to visit. If your not a regular you get leered at all night, the people and staff are absolutly terrible. You will wait at the bar all night waiting to get served, whilst all the regulars get their drinks. Then and only then will you get yours. You will see a fight at least once a night. Karaoke is only for those of us who are blessed with the ability to sing – they wont let you up again if not. This pub needs knocking down it’s a menace to society, out of 10 a big fat 0.

Solid, dependable and well-run. Friendly bar staff and regulars, local and national newspapers, rugby league memorabilia, jukebox, pool table, and very fair prices. Has been my local for years, ever since I got tired of the landlord turnover at the Cherries. I’ve never seen anyone refused a go at karaoke, including me, and I can’t sing, and rarely pick a song anyone likes. So you carry on spouting tripe, and I’ll carry on drinking at Sam’s Bar Scholes.

Beer in the evening.

You’ll have to swing by and judge for y’self – my own karaoke tune of choice as ever:

In The Ghetto.

Wigan – Civic Centre

Posted on November 17, 2016November 17, 2016 by modernmoocher

Some time ago, over a year ago or so I went to Wigan.

I found a pub, a launderette, several interesting groups of housing and –

A large concrete Civic Centre, built in the early 1970s under the auspices of the Mayor JT Farrimond, the foundation stone laid by Alderman Ernest Ball on 22nd April 1970 – a man who seems to have collected letters after his name just for fun.

A tight grid structure is broken up with chamfered window fames and a mix of concrete finishes, surfaces and textures, slipping neatly into the inclined topography.

A rather distinguished cantilevered canopy or two sit centrally over the entrance porch.

The building no longer offers public access, services having been transferred to the nearby Life Centre.

The Manchester Modernists have highlighted the centre in its new Top Ten Twentieth Century Buildings project.

Why not bob along, see what you think and remember – vote, vote, vote!

Wigan – Rylands Mill

Posted on March 16, 2015December 7, 2016 by modernmoocher

I’m no Urbex man, when all’s said and done, I feel the fear and the weight of the past, I guess I’m just a little too sensitive. So I made cautious ingress into this giant mill complex, always aware of the feet that trod this way in former times and a constant threat of the falling fragile structure.

The surfaces have, since it’s last occupants left, been shaped by intruders, the weather, taggers, blaggers, bloggers and inquisitive teens, I left only hushed footfalls.

We are all now complicit in its history.

– In 1819, Rylands & Sons were established with their seat of operations being in Wigan.

In the course of a few years extensive properties at Wigan, along with dye works and bleach works, were purchased. Valuable seams of coal were afterwards discovered under these properties, and proved a great source of wealth to the purchasers.

The mill was built in 1867, designed by George Woodhouse for John Rylands, one of the area’s largest cotton spinners. The Grade II listed complex includes the former spinning mill, weaving sheds, engine house and chimney, noted for it ornate brickwork.

It has now been acquired by MCR Property Group who are in the process of planning to restore the mill building which will house a mixture of apartments with views over Mesnes Park. The development will also comprise of a number of modern townhouses and office space over four levels.

All current planning applications have been withdrawn, its future remains uncertain.

Wigan – Washeteria

Posted on March 9, 2015April 13, 2017 by modernmoocher

I loved it.

In the United Kingdom known as launderettes or laundrettes, and in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand as laundromats or washeterias, and in Frimley too it would appear.

George Edward Penury created the word laundromat for Westinghouse.

According to NALI the National Association of the Launderette Industry, numbers peaked at 12,500 in the early 80s but have since dwindled to just 3,000.

The first UK launderette – alternative spelling: laundrette. was opened on May 9th 1949 in Queensway London.

In Wigan they never closed.

Wigan – The Pagefield Hotel

Posted on March 9, 2015March 26, 2018 by modernmoocher

Like many large Edwardian pubs The Pagefield is now closed, though of great social, architectural and historical importance, the economics of industrial decline and changing patterns of leisure almost always point to a change of use rather than reopening as a boozer. Though more commonly becoming a Tesco or Sainsbury’s, plans have been submitted for both conversion to flats and a possible Indian Restaurant, neither seem imminent.

The building is blessed with etched and stained glass windows, a richness of architectural type, mosaic porch and a grandeur in scale and detailing. Once serving a high density of housing in the Springfield area, the mills that fuelled the economy of the area are now long gone, along with the wages that bounced over the bar.

It was named after the Pagefield iron rolling mills which were just down the road – thanks to Steven Buckley for the inside track, his great grandfathers worked at the mill.

Originally a Bolton based brewery Magee and Marshall owned the pub, passing to Greenall Whitley and then the usual succession of entrepreneurial pub companies.

“Magee Marshall & Company was a brewery that operated from the Crown Brewery in Bolton. It was founded by David Magee, a brewer and spirit merchant in 1853. He moved from the Good Samaritan Brewhouse to the Crown Hotel in the 1860s and built the Crown Brewery in Derby Street next to the hotel. After his death he was succeeded by his sons, who acquired David Marshall’s Grapes Brewery and the Horseshoe Brewery. The company was registered as Magee Marshall & Company Ltd. in 1888. The company acquired Henry Robinson’s Brewery in Wigan and Halliwell’s Alexandra Brewery. In 1959 it was acquired by Greenall and Whitley and closed in 1970.

The brewery, built around 1900, was in the “traditional brewery style” with a five-storey section for gravity processing and an ornamental tower. Up to the 1950s the company transported water, high in dissolved calcium carbonate content, in tankers by rail from Burton on Trent for the brewing process.”